Humboldt anarchist book fair

The year 2015 was one of inspiring resistance and revolution. Let’s carry that same ferocity into the new year! We are glad to be starting 2016 off with the 8th Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair.

The Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair plays a part in strengthening connections and solidarity for building a new world.

We are excited, as many of you are, about the Rojava revolution, along with the uprisings across the U.S. There is a lot happening; lots to talk about!

The 8th Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair is bringing it January 23rd, 2016!

We will have publishers and community organizations tabling in the main hall, with Pirate radio DJing the event, great, free food provided all day by Food Not Bombs, and The Kids Corner will hosted by the YES house this year with free childcare so that you can catch all our fantastic presenters.

There are workshops and presentations all day in meeting rooms A and B.

Here is the line-up so far:

True North Organizing Network
http://www.truenorthorganizing.org/

Student Unions and Combative Syndicalism:
http://freeeducationmontreal.org/confrontational-combative-syndicalism/
Fannie from Montreal will talk about their experience in the largest and most successful student strike, which helped bring about the largest general strike in Canadian history. They will discuss the ideas, methods, and organization that made it all possible. There may also be organizers from HSU to present some of their organizing work.

Local Radical/ Independent Media Panel:
Greenfuse, Humboldt Free Radio Alliance, Edge Newspaper, Slingshot, Fifth Estate, and more TBA.

Direct Action Workshop

scott crow, author of Emergency Hearts, Molotov Dreams

Addressing Our Needs Through Direct Action and Cooperation:
Ryan Ayala of Humboldt Area Harm Reduction Services and
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, co-author of The Revolution Starts At Home

Slam Poetry Workshop: Gork and Jovannah

Crimethinc: Democracy or Freedom? with CrimethInc. ex-Workers’ Collective:
What’s the difference between democracy and anarchy?
Democracy is the most popular buzzword in politics. From the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the most radical social movements, nearly everyone claims to be democratic. In this provocative presentation, we will discuss what ties all these different understandings of democracy together and what sets anarchism apart. Reviewing how recent social movements have experimented with democratic rhetoric and practices, we will conclude by exploring other ways to understand what we are doing together when we make decisions.

Anarchist Organizations In Social Movements
Panel: Humboldt Grassroots, Black Rose LA, Crimethinc

One of our keynote speakers will be Michael with Tatort Kurdistan from Berlin, Germany. He is a co-author of the book Democratic Autonomy in Northern Kurdistan and Revolution in Rojava. He will be discussing democratic autonomy as it is being developed in the Kurdish movement, including models for gender equality and racial democracy. Michael is doing his Ph.D. work on the revolution in Rojava and will have lots to share with us about that.

Our other keynote speaker will be Paul Z. Simmons, journalist, and author recently back from the Rojava Revolution and working on his new book “The Rojava Revolution.”
Paul Z. Simons, writing under the pen name, El Errante, is the author of a series of recent dispatches from the liberated territories of Rojava in Northern Syria. Simons has just returned from a region besieged by war yet is also in the midst of one of the most far-reaching social experiments of the 21st Century: the ‘Rojava Revolution.’ The liberated territories of Rojava are a thriving example in new forms of democratic practice and of a people who are overturning traditional, coercive institutions in favor of direct democracy and the empowerment and enfranchisement of women. Simons talks about his experiences including crossing international boundaries under false pretenses, attending commune meetings in Kobane, high-velocity detours around ISIS sympathetic villages, and the camaraderie of the YPG militias. Simons had full access to the various revolutionary organizations and militias and will discuss their mandates and implementation issues associated with realizing a new society. Paul Z. Simons’ report is a part adventure, part journalism, and part political analysis, of the Rojava Revolution.

We will be updating the schedule as the event comes closer.

Please remember this is a family-friendly event.

The 8th Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair is coming!
This is a FREE, all-day, radical event! Join us in the main hall at 10am to nourish your body with some of the FREE FOOD cooked up by Food Not Bombs and friends (which they’ll be serving up the whole day), browse the tables of radical publishers and community groups, mingle with some good, free-thinking folk, listen to a little comedy from Robo and poetry from Gork and Jovannah. This is a family-friendly event with the Kid’s Corner featuring FREE CHILD CARE and activities, hosted this year by The YES House. The kid’s can hang out there while you move between the two meeting rooms to catch inspiring presentations from authors and activists and share your own ideas and experiences during interactive discussions, beginning at 11am.

Here is the line-up so far:

11am:
Room A:
Addressing Our Needs Through Direct Action and Cooperation:
Come join us for an open discussion led by Ryan Ayala, a recent graduate from HSU in Psychology. Looking at the Queer community, he will discuss the challenges of bureaucracy in making social change and ways in which such topics as harm reduction can be approached in substance abuse.

Room B:
Workers Power Panel:
Bruce and friends will be discussing the ways that workers can gain power over their lives. They will share success stories from the struggle and some good strategies for getting the bosses off your back.

12pm:
Room B:
Student Unions and Combative Syndicalism:
Fannie from Montreal will be Skyping in to talk about their experience in the largest and most successful student strike, which helped bring about the largest general strike in Canadian history. They will discuss the ideas, methods, and organization that made it all possible. There may also be organizers from HSU to present some of their organizing work.
http://freeeducationmontreal.org/confrontational-combative-syndicalism/

1pm:
Room A:
Lessons for Rural and Small Town Anarchists:
Doug Gilbert discusses strategies and lessons learned from his involvement in the group Modesto Anarcho, based out of Modesto, California located in the Central Valley. Modesto Anarcho published a magazine of the same name, ran a social space, Firehouse 51, and was involved in a variety of struggles including organizing with families of those killed by police, gentrification, foreclosures, and housing, and much more. More than just a history, Gilbert will discuss how anarchists in small and rural towns face special challenges, especially in areas that do not have established anarchist groups and spaces.

Room B:
Crimethinc: Democracy or Freedom?
CrimethInc. ex-Workers’ Collective:
What’s the difference between democracy and anarchy?
Democracy is the most popular buzzword in politics. From the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the most radical social movements, nearly everyone claims to be democratic. In this provocative presentation, we will discuss what ties all these different understandings of democracy together and what sets anarchism apart. Reviewing how recent social movements have experimented with democratic rhetoric and practices, we will conclude by exploring other ways to understand what we are doing together when we make decisions.

2pm:
Room B:
Emergency Hearts, Molotov Dreams:
Author scott crow will give a talk about his new book, which is a selected collection of interviews and presentations that scott crow has given over the last five years covering a variety of topics such as- anarchy, cooperatives, police brutality, prisons, animal liberation, environmental justice, surveillance and political movements.
http://www.scottcrow.org/book-new-release-emergency-hearts-molotov-dreams-a-scott-crow-reader/

3pm:
Room A:
Anarchist Organizations In Social Movements Panel:
Humboldt Grassroots, Black Rose Anarchist Federation LA, Crimethinc

4pm:
Room A:
Slam Poetry Workshop:
Gork Burns and Jovannah Hoboo

Room B:
The Rojava Revolution:
Our keynote speaker will be Paul Z. Simmons, journalist, and author recently back from the Rojava Revolution. Writing under the pen name, El Errante, he is the author of a series of recent dispatches from the liberated territories of Rojava in Northern Syria. Simons has just returned from a region besieged by war yet is also in the midst of one of the most far-reaching social experiments of the 21st Century: the ‘Rojava Revolution.’ The liberated territories of Rojava are a thriving example in new forms of democratic practice and of a people who are overturning traditional, coercive institutions in favor of direct democracy and the empowerment and enfranchisement of women. Simons talks about his experiences including crossing international boundaries under false pretenses, attending commune meetings in Kobane, high-velocity detours around ISIS sympathetic villages, and the camaraderie of the YPG militias. Simons had full access to the various revolutionary organizations and militias and will discuss their mandates and implementation issues associated with realizing a new society. Paul Z. Simons’ report is a part adventure, part journalism, and part political analysis, of the Rojava Revolution.

We are sad to report that Michael Knapp, from TATORT Kurdistan, who was going to be visiting us from Berlin, Germany to discuss his own experience with the Rojava Revolution, has been denied entry by the U.S. government due to a recent policy which allows them to turn away without cause or explanation anyone who has even visited Northern Syria. How convenient during this refugee crisis. FUCK BORDERS!

5pm:
Room A:
Radical/ Independent Media Panel:
Greenfuse, Humboldt Free Radio Alliance, Slingshot, and 5th Estate.

You’re SO in, right?! Worried about how you’re gonna get there? We thought of that too! The Manila Community Center is one of the stops on the Redwood Transit Line that travels between Eureka and Arcata with stops in Manila. Get on the bus for us!